Dec 4th, 2001; LINCOLN, AL.; Honda Manufacturing of Alabama (HMA) today announced plans for a 30,000-unit increase in production capacity to 150,000 vehicles and engines per year by late 2002, raising Honda's investment in the facility to $580 million and employment to approximately 2,300 associates.

The announcement came as Honda associates, Alabama elected officials and guests gathered for the dedication of the new plant, which last month began producing the class-leading Odyssey minivan and the V-6 engine that powers it.

"Looking at our customers, the demand for Honda products in North America has left our dealers in short supply of models like the Odyssey, so we want to set a new challenge," said Hiroyuki Yoshino, president and CEO of Honda Motor Co., Ltd., who attended the event. "Already we are renewing the dream here in Alabama. Only with new dreams and new efforts can we continue to meet the needs of our customers."

Read the rest of this Alabama press release here!

March 17, 2006; News Courier - Athens, AL, USA; 'World's Fastest Indian' a winner. By Scott Meeker THE JOPLIN GLOBE (JOPLIN, Mo.)

“Danger is the spice of life.”

So says Burt Munro (Anthony Hopkins) when questioned about his desire to break land-speed records on a rickety 1920 Indian Scout motorcycle in “The World’s Fastest Indian.”

The movie is the true story of Munro, a 68-year-old New Zealander who traveled to the United States in 1967 to race his motorcycle at the Bonneville Salt Flats in Utah.

On paper, one might look at the plot description and guess that this could be your typical feel-good, root-for-the-underdog movie in the vein of “Rocky” or “Rudy.”

While it is definitely a feel-good, root-for-the-underdog film, it’s anything but typical.

Director Roger Donaldson manages to eschew most of the clichés one typically finds in the genre (I waited and waited for the inevitable training montage that, happily, never materialized) in favor of putting Hopkins’ eccentric and extremely affable old coot front and center. And it’s easily Sir Anthony’s finest role in recent memory.

Munro is the kind of guy who builds his own motorcycle parts and can use a gate hinge and wine cork to trick out his cycle’s motor, but can’t get seem to get a handle on simple things like keeping his lawn mowed. And when he does heed his neighbors’ pleas to take care of the grass, he casually douses it in gasoline and sets it ablaze.

His workshop is a shrine to the “god of speed,” and he takes his dream of going to Bonneville so seriously that he won’t let a little chest pain stop him.

When his doctor gives him some nitro-glycerine tablets and suggests that his riding days are over, Munro just gives a bemused chuckle and a, “The hell they are.”

Get this Alabama bike news story here...

According to police, the victim was on a motorcycle that had been stolen from the parking lot of V&T Silk Flower & Plant Store at 4726 St. Stephen's Road in Eight Mile.

The motorcycle collided with a Ford Ranger or Chevy truck at about 4:30 Friday afternoon on Freida Avenue, authorities said. The man driving the truck, who allegedly helped steal the bike, sped off after the accident, according to police. The victim was taken to the University of South Alabama Medical Center.